The necessity of providing means for properly accommodating used hypodermic needles is well recognized and has been addressed since the advent of the administration of medicaments by such devices. For decades, hypodermic syringes and the related cannulas or needles, were constructed with the intent of re-using each of these members repeatedly. Thus, the syringe assemblies were all manufactured of glass and after each use, were suitably sterilized along with the stainless steel needles, such as by autoclaving. Personnel utilizing these re-usable syringes accordingly were attuned to accounting for the soiled device after administering the medication, since the syringes were always destined for usually prompt autoclaving so that they would be available for re-use. For several years now, the majority of medical injections have been administered by means of single-use, throw-away syringes and wherein the packaged, sterilized syringe is constructed of plastics. The same type of stainless steel needles are now used but even these are treated as a single-use, throw-away item, often included in the same package as the syringe.
With the ever increasing threat of becoming exposed or infected, as with the AIDS virus, the more prevalent infectious hepatitis or other diseases, medical personnel as well as their patients are very concerned about the possibility of accidentally being infected through carelessness associated with the handling of used hypodermic syringe assemblies and most especially, the soiled needle. Whether using the older, re-usable glass syringes or the currently popular single-use plastics syringes, the fact remains that as long as bioburden remains on or within a used needle, anyone subsequently handling or being exposed to the device will be at risk. This danger may occur five minutes after use of the syringe, as in the septic tray used to remove the syringe from the hospital room or doctor's office or, in the case of the single-use devices could occur five days or weeks later at any point in the chain of the medical waste disposal route.
Even with the proliferation of no-stick needle devices to ward off the likelihood of accidental skin pricks from used needles, such devices at best usually only mask the problem since any bioburden will still exist on or in the needle and therefore continues to present a threat throughout the usual currently employed disposal precedures.
Obviously, a need exists for a method and apparatus for quickly, safely and positively sterilizing contaminated syringe needles and which is employed at the point of use, even before being placed in a septic tray, waste basket or the like.